P Marks Thee Pirate
by Poketheveil
Summary: Violet has escaped her family, and would happily spend the rest of her now pillaging life disguised as a man. Her family, though, has other plans....
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Pirates of the Caribbean, as surprising as that sounds.

Lord Cutler Beckett was a very cruel man. And decidedly so, Violet decided.

Being the owner of the East India Trading Company, he naturally despised pirates, and understandably so. But what he did to them whenever he caught them was rather unnecessary.

Violet had only been a pirate for four months, the member of a crew of a bumbling bunch of idiotic pirates, when they had been caught rather easily by a scouting patrol from the East India Trading Company.

At first it wasn't so bad. The patrol merely made them surrender and then brought them to the East India Trading Company's fort on Cuba. The crew, including Violet, was thrown in separate cells.

Then Beckett had arrived in his silk shirt, spotless white breeches, leather shoes with shining silver buckles, and a blue jacket that reached to his mid-thigh. His powdered wig only served to make him look even haughtier than he already did.

Beckett surveyed his latest catch with quick glances at the men as he passed by their cells. But when he arrived at Violet's cell, he stopped dead in his tracks, eyes actually going wider for a second as though surprised, but quickly returning to their normal size when he realized he wasn't imagining what he saw.

"Well well well…" he started, surveying her sitting on the bench at the back of her cell. "I did _not _expect to ever see you here, Violet."

Violet shrugged. "I didn't expect ever to be here, Uncle," she replied. "But I suppose we should both learn to expect the unexpected."

"I suppose I should have learned to expect the unexpected from you, at least, after what you did to my brother." Beckett's eyes turned icy. He gestured to the two waiting guards, and they unlocked the door and clapped a pair of irons on her wrists.

Beckett led the guards, who in turn led Violet, down the corridor and finally into a waiting room. The room was empty except for a chair, a fireplace with a roaring fire, and something that was heating up inside that very fire. The chair had chains which were put on her wrists after the irons were removed, keeping her trapped on the chair. They left her unable to move, unable to really stop whatever was to happen…and left her vulnerable.

The guards exited at a look from Beckett, leaving the two relatives alone.

"Do you know what I do to pirates when I catch them?" Beckett asked, pacing idly around the chair and stopping in front of the fireplace.

Violet nodded, inwardly rolling her eyes at his statement. Beckett hardly caught pirates himself – at least, not anymore. "You brand them on the wrist, P for pirate, so everyone can know when they've caught one."

Beckett faced her, a small smirk on his face. "Very good. But I don't think a mere P on the wrist suits you, Violet."

This was a puzzling statement for Violet. Surely her uncle wasn't about to simply not brand her, was he?

"No, it doesn't suit you on the wrist at all. However, there are other places better suited for you, dear niece, and I have just the one."

Violet neither liked his tone nor the sudden widening of his smirk as he picked up the poker that was red hot at the end from the fire, the end which was a 'P'. Beckett put oil on the end. "Mustn't let it stick," he commented, moving closer to Violet.

"Yes, I have the perfect place in mind…." He murmured, and suddenly Violet realized exactly where that 'P' was heading.

It was a searing pain, worse than being burnt by a pan or being hit by a few flying sparks from a scorching bonfire. The smell of burning flesh that accompanied it made Violet want to throw up, but she held her gag and did not let herself utter any noise that would please her uncle.

It was over in seven seconds, though it seemed like seven years to Violet as her cheek was burnt with that wicked letter. Beckett called for the guards again, and as they took her back towards her cell, he took great pleasure in saying, "That will hurt for a few days, Violet, so try not to touch it."

* * *

The dead of night that usually brought sleep forgot to bring Violet hers. Her cheek throbbed incessantly, nearly driving her mad, so instead she waited to see if the night watchmen would fall asleep. If they did she might just be able to escape.

At two in the morning, as far as Violet could tell, the two watchmen finally fell into a dark abyss of sweet unconsciousness. With half a grin, Violet searched through her hair and finally found what she needed. A bobby pin. Violet set to work on her cell's lock, being rather good at picking locks. She had learned at a very young age, which was the only reason why she was still alive today. It clicked, the sound being a merry announcement to Violet that she was now free of her confinement.

Well, halfway, at least. Violet crept over to where they had stuck her pistol, cutlass, and hat, put them in their respectful places, and then went in search for the door out.

The corridors were long, the dark stone and many shadows cast in the moonlight making the place seem menacing. There was cell after cell, more than half of them empty, but some filled with sleeping pirates.

Violet did not bother helping any of them out, most of them being the reason she was there in the first place. Her smarting cheek made any trace of a thought of helping them vanish in an instant.

Though it took her the better part of an hour, Violet finally found the very door she was looking for, and found the key to said door not far from it, on the floor by an obviously drunk guard. As quietly as she could, Violet unlocked the door, propped it open, put the keys back, locked the door and leapt out, closing the door behind her.

Setting off at a brisk run towards the town, Violet left behind the looming fort of her uncle.


	2. Chapter One

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own Pirates. (grumbles)

* * *

By the time Violet reached the town, her breath was puffing out of her mouth, which only served to make her cheek sting even more. She brushed that thought away, ignoring the pain.

_You're a pirate! _She chided herself. _This surely isn't as bad as being run through with a blade!_

Caught by a sudden thought, Violet ducked into the nearest empty alley and quickly tied her hair back at the nape of her neck and bound her chest so that soon she looked no more like a woman than any male pirate, merely graced with a slight femininity in the facial features. Violet was not new to acting like she was a man; when she had been little she had been able to trick boys into thinking she was a boy, too, so that she could join in on their pirate games.

The first bar she came to was a rather lively one, the smell of rum practically pouring out, the sounds of rowdy men yelling themselves hoarse while they laughed and talked. Stepping inside confidently, Violet could tell with one look that a pirate vessel had anchored not too far from here.

Violet was glad, though, because that was going to be the only way she was going to get out of Cuba now. Alive, at any rate, and not bound to soon be taking a short drop with a rather nasty sudden stop, either.

Plopping down in an empty seat at an empty table, a barmaid came to serve her. "I _would_, but someone up'n the fort went an' took me money," Violet explained darkly, her voice disguised slightly.

The barmaid nodded sympathetically. "Well, at least ye got out," she commented, leaving Violet for another table.

"Innit that the truth," Violet muttered, watching a man out of the corner of her left eye – the eye above her smarting cheek. Violet could tell this man was the captain of the ship that had come in simply by his demeanor, and had purposefully sat the closest she could get to him.

The man was handsome, too, seeming to take care of himself more than most of the pirates Violet had ever seen – or worked with. In fact, he looked like…like….

Violet frowned. Who did he look like? She couldn't for the life of her remember the name of the pirate she had read about that looked like this captain, yet she knew she had read about him. A lot.

"Smarts a bit, doesn' it, mate?" drawled the captain, having gotten up from his table and come over to join Violet's. Violet looked over at him. "Aye, 'course. Best be careful, Beckett hisself is up at the fort. Rather moody, too, he is," she added.

He chuckled. "Aye, don' we all know it! How'd ye end up caught then, if ye don' mind tellin', that is. I could always use a nice tale."

"Well then, I don' know if this be particularly nice, but I'll tell ye. See, me captain decided to sail righ' inta waters we all knew were full of East India Trading Company patrols. 'Tha's not wise,' says I, but they don' listen on account of me only bein' a four month old crew member. What would I know? So we sailed straight inta Beckett's territory, an' get caught jus' like that." Violet snapped her fingers. "Idiots, the lot o' them. So I left 'em all in their cozy cells while I escaped. All the bloody guards were asleep 'bout two, Beckett'll be on the rampage when he finds me missin'." She flashed a half-grin.

"So, ye got a name, mate?" the pirate asked curiously. "Aye, Valiant – but don' ye go laughin', now! Me ma liked odd names. Had a brother named Likewise, I did." Violet intoned seriously.

"Well then, Valiant, how would ye like to join _the _Captain Jack Sparrow's infamous crew? I'm short a few, could use ye."

Ah yes, Jack Sparrow. Violet remembered now.

"Aye, I'd like to join, Captain. B'sides, not much else for me to do, not with this here screamin' on me cheek," Violet said, humor filling her voice at the last sentence. Jack nodded in agreement.

* * *

Jack Sparrow was a rather odd and eccentric captain, to say the least, but a fair one nonetheless. Sailing under his command was much more enjoyable than the last one of Violet's had been. 

However, sometimes Violet couldn't understand him one bit…that moment being one of those times. They were anchored not far off from a Turkish prison, of all places. And Jack had gone inside for something.

"Fifty men on a dead man's chest," Gibbs sang slightly drunkenly. "Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. Drink and the devil, had done for the rest. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Violet shook her head, a slight smirk on her face. Gibbs knew the strangest and funniest songs…and liked to spout them out when he was drinking rum.

Somewhere off into the distance, Violet heard something that sounded strangely like a gunshot. But more did not follow, so she was puzzled as to why there had been one at all.

The night was slightly foggy, but it was rolling out at a steady pace. As Violet watched time chase it away, her thoughts strayed to her only sister Marie.

Marie had never liked Violet. Violet supposed it was because she had always seen her as competition, or at least at the very start – when their mother had been alive. Marie took after their father, blonde with icy blue eyes. Violet, on the other hand, took after their mother, a brunette with warm eyes the very color of the Caribbean waters.

The sudden appearance of Jack rowing up to the Black Pearl in a coffin (occupied, at that), using a leg as an oar, pulled Violet away from her thoughts about her sister. Apparently Jack had found something not as shiny as the rest of the crew wanted, for they had all crowded around Jack almost menacingly. Violet rolled her eyes. She was never one to care what they were going after. Just as long as it kept her away from her father's family and her sister, for that was the reason she couldn't stay put in one place for long.

Jack seemed to have persuaded (or merely confused) them, for he was about to set off down the deck again when he was stopped by Marty.

"So…do we have a heading?" Marty asked expectantly.

"Ah! A heading." Jack opened up his compass and peered at it. "Set sail in a…general…."

He seemed to be having a difficult time deciding which way to go, which was odd even for Jack. His hand was pointing, but kept moving around to point in a different direction. Finally, he made up his mind. "…that way direction!"

The crew looked at him as if he were mad – or madder than usual. "Captain?" Gibbs asked incredulously, sounding a bit concerned.

"Go on, make way, set sail, you know how this works." Jack persisted, and Violet was forced to spring into action to help the rest of the crew get the ship moving again.

* * *

Violet collapsed into her hammock, which was (thankfully) in as secluded a place below deck as one could find. Though there was still a risk of her being found out she was a woman when she changed, Violet was as safe as she could be. Even so, Violet didn't change her clothes as much as she would have liked, but she knew it was far better than the alternative. Yes, much better…. 

When the shuffling of the rest of the crew had quieted to a bunch of snores, Violet lay awake wondering whether she'd ever be able just to be herself again – her full self, without anything hidden in fear of being kicked off the Pearl or worse, though Violet doubted Jack would do anything worse to her if he were to find out.

Still, Violet did not like the thought of being dropped off at the closest place that was populated.

Violet did not know how long she had been thinking when she heard the footfalls of a person heading down the stairs. A few seconds later, as Violet peered around a stack of crates to see who it was, Jack came into view. When he reached the floor, he peered around and Violet ducked out of sight.

"As you were, gents," he said before moving even father below.

The comment made a corner of Violet's mouth turn upward in an amused smirk. It was just like Jack to say that kind of thing to a crew he knew would never actually know he had even been down there.

Violet heard the door to the rum cellar slam shut below, and smothered a chuckle at her captain's typical behavior as she settled back into her hammock. Things quickly seemed distant, and Violet's breathing began to even out. Just as sleep was about to engulf her in its waters, she was jerked away from it.

"Movement! I want to see movement!" Jack's voice yelled, his tone bordering on panic for the first time Violet had ever heard. She leapt out of her hammock, pulling on her boots hastily and speeding up onto the deck.

As Violet tightened ropes close to the Captain's quarters, she couldn't help overhearing the conversation between Jack and Gibbs.

"Do we have a heading?" Gibbs asked, a bit cautiously.

Jack made a noise of surprise before replying quickly, "Run! Land!" His eyes glanced all around, Violet saw, as she looked over in curiosity.

"What port?" Gibbs said, wanting more information than their captain was giving.

"I didn't say port, I said land. Any land."

Violet's eyes widened in surprise – never had Jack not known where to go, he had always had a port in mind, usually Tortuga.

Suddenly the monkey, that blasted monkey that so loved stealing things you needed or wanted, dropped from somewhere above Jack. He grabbed Jack's hat and ran over to the port side of the ship, climbing up a net of rope and threw it into the sea.

Gibbs ran to the side and looked over to where the hat floated. "Jack's hat! Bring her about!" he exclaimed, and everyone hastened to obey. They were all stopped dead in their tracks a second later, however, by Jack's next near-panicked shout.

"No no! Leave it!"

Movement ceased as everyone turned to gape at Jack.

"Run." Jack said, and then hastened towards the doors to his cabin.

"Back to yer stations, that lot of ya'!" Gibbs shouted after a moment's hesitation. Violet went back to tightening the ropes as Gibbs walked over to the staircase Violet was beside, and Violet realized that Jack was indeed hiding _under_ it.

"Jack?" Gibbs asked, and was shushed by him. "For the love of mother and child, Jack, what's coming after us?"

There came no answer for a moment, and Violet was just about to move to another bunch of ropes to make sure that they, too, were tight enough, when he replied with a rather unconvincing, "Nothing."

Nothing, indeed. There was a tension hanging in the air, a tension of some impending danger lurking beneath the waters, and it made Violet wary. Whatever Jack was keeping to himself was definitely anything but good.

After all the ropes had been tightened as much as they could, Violet sat again on the starboard rail and gazed toward the horizon. Violet did not know how long she sat there, but soon she spotted something in the distance, and a few minutes later she knew it was an island. "Land ho!" she shouted, and quite a few people, including Gibbs, rushed to the side beside her to look.

Once Gibbs was satisfied that it really was land, he seemed to be quite happier. "Go tell the Captain while I get the others to get busy headin' for that island," Gibbs told Violet, and she nodded once to show she would, and then set off for Jack's cabin.

Knocking smartly on the door twice, Violet waited for Jack's approval to come in before she opened the door. When she had gotten no answer for almost thirty seconds, she knocked again, saying, "Captain? I've some news for you."

The door opened almost immediately when she had finished. "Oh, it's you Valiant. Thought it was Gibbs again."

Violet swallowed a snort of laughter. "No, just me come to tell you that we've spotted land and are heading for it." She told him.

Jack was very happy to hear that, and so Violet took her chance. "Is it something big and nasty and slimy?" she asked as he started out of his cabin to take a look at the island himself. He stopped dead in his tracks. "It is, isn't it?" Violet continued after seeing his reaction. Jack looked at her, and Violet shrugged. "Hey, that's all I wanted to know. Maybe I could feed that monkey to it."

Jack smirked, then continued on his way, and Violet couldn't help but to smirk herself.

* * *

A/N: Finally, a Pirates fic! (Surprisingly, I hadn't had one up before this….) Anyway, tell me what you think so far in a review; I can only improve if you give me suggestions!

Don't forget to go see At World's End this weekend! I'm so excited!


	3. Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I don't own Pirates, but if you try to do anything to me I'll sic the Pirate Lords on you! (holds up a silver piece of eight threateningly)

A/N: Thanks to my reviewers, **J. B. Duenweg **and **izzfrogger**!

* * *

The island seemed deserted as the Pearl approached it, and nothing and nobody appeared as they keel-hauled and began to clean the outside of the ship. It was about midmorning when there was rustling in the bushes. When everyone turned to see what was making the racket, a group of what could only be natives came out. They were sparsely dressed with painted symbols and patterns on most of their upper bodies. 

One of them jabbered something in an odd language, and quite suddenly more came out of hiding, and Violet and the crew found themselves surrounded from all sides, and were soon being herded into two different groups. Violet noticed her group was much smaller than the other.

"Oi, what's all this then?"

Everyone, including all the natives, turned to look at Jack as he strode over, a slight frown marring his features. The natives looked at one another, and then one jabbered something, pointing straight at Jack. The jabbering soon became shouts, and suddenly those not keeping Violet and the rest of the crew captive dropped onto their knees, bowing and chanting.

Jack looked puzzled, yet quite pleased that they weren't treating him like his crew. The natives were already leading the larger group to wherever they had come from. The hairs on the back of Violet's neck stood on-end, and she knew wherever _they_ were going it was not going to be somewhere they were going to like. In fact, judging by the state of their teeth, Violet was willing to bet everything she had that if they were invited to dinner, none of them would be hungry anytime in the future.

_

* * *

__Just don't think about it, whatever you do, Violet. _

Regrettably enough, Violet had been very correct in her assumption of what the natives were. Cannibals, of all things that they could have run into. The Pelagustus tribe, according to Gibbs. How he knew this, Violet wondered, though mostly because she had nothing else to do. Oh, except hope that they'd stop eating soon. The tribe was cooking the last of the larger group they had picked from the crew.

Thankfully, Lady Luck was smiling down on the eleven crewmen still uneaten, for after the last piece of cooked meat had been swallowed (Violet crinkled her nose in disgust once more), the cannibals set to work building things. These turned out to be two cages, which the eleven – now a group of five and a group of six – were forced into.

As if that weren't enough, the cages were hung over a canyon. Violet was glad she didn't have a fear of heights.

Yet.

* * *

As the cage jerked, Violet started awake and noticed they were headed up. When she turned her gaze in that direction, Violet realized the cannibals were bringing them back up. 

Dread seeped into her chest, and then flowed through her very veins. They were hungry again, that had to be it – or they needed something else built. Either way, the future looked grim to Violet.

As the cage was set on solid ground once again, Violet noticed a rather handsome young man glowering at the two painted men on either side of him. Not that Violet blamed him at all.

When the cage was opened to shove the man inside, where some of the men seemed to know him, Violet breathed a sigh of relief. So it wasn't time to be cannibal chum and become a chair or some other piece of furniture. Violet couldn't have been happier at that moment.

"…and this here's Valiant," Gibbs said, having apparently introduced the other two men the young man didn't know. Violet nodded her head and held out her hand. "Jus' call me Val, aye? Why my mother had to choose Valiant of all the things she could have named me…." She said with a grin.

"Will Turner," he replied, taking her hand and shaking it. Afterwards, Will went back to being angry at his capture. "Why would he do this to us?" he began angrily. "If Jack is their Chief –"

Yawning, Violet tuned out Will's complaining as she stared up at the bridge and started to count the planks. It was slow-going, being so far from it, but it kept her mind off her thoughts of what might happen later.

Halfway through Violet's count, Will's voice punctured into her thoughts and she lost her count. Blowing a frustrated breath out of her nose, Violet turned to listen to what Will was saying, since she was no longer lost in the bliss of her mind-numbing counting of planks.

"…all your help," Will was saying, looking around at everyone in the cage, "or this will never work. If we can swing the cages close enough to the side of the canyon over there, we might be able to grab something and climb up."

Everyone perked up at those words. "And if we climb up…" Marty started, a grin spreading across his face. "…then we can escape!" Gibbs finished excitedly, his mood having lightened considerably at that thought. "C'mon, men, step to! Start swingin'!"

With shouts of approval, all the men in both cages followed Gibbs's order, and Violet was forced to go along with it. They all shoved their bodies at the opposite side of the cage, making it move toward the side of the canyon they weren't aiming for. Their bodies alert, once the cage had swung to the point it had been at when they started, they threw themselves at the other end, sending it swinging even closer to the canyon side they were aiming for than it would have swung before.

Back and forth they went, yelling themselves hoarse as they came ever closer to the canyon's side. Finally, their fingertips just touched the vines that were probably roots before they swung back, letting their disappointed impatience out with a, "Aw!"

They put everything they had into their next shove and were rewarded for their efforts; after swinging for a quarter of an hour, at least, they were able to grab the vines on the canyon's side.

"Put yer legs through, start te climb!" Gibbs exclaimed, and everyone that could did so. Violet was slightly envious of Marty; being short, he could only give moral support as everyone else did the grueling job of climbing up a vertical wall. "C'mon, men, it'll take everyone to crew the _Black Pearl_!"

One of the men in the other cage spoke up at Will's words. "Actually, you wouldn't need everyone," he said conversationally. "About six would do!" Violet and the men with her in their cage looked at each other. "Oooh dear…." said the other man, noticing their looks. "Hurry!" Will exclaimed, and they started climbing again, now in a 'race to the finish or be left to be eaten' contest.

About halfway up the now thoroughly cursed wall, Will made them halt. "Stop, stop. Stop!" Everyone looked at him as they ceased climbing. Will looked meaningfully up at the bridge, where a Pelagustus man – at least Violet _thought_ it was a man, but maybe it was a boy – was walking across like a sentry.

The man that had spoken up earlier, causing the blasted race that only pirates would get into, thought for a moment. Being the apparent leader of the group in the other cage, he thought for a moment before grinning impishly. Motioning for his men to be quiet, he pointed up and they started climbing again. Violet glared at another man who snickered at them as they climbed.

"Stop!" Will whispered frantically, but the other cage of men ignored him. Suddenly the leader started panicking, and Violet nearly laughed as he exclaimed, "Snake! Aaaah!" This sent his men into a panic of their own, and they forgot they were climbing a vertical wall and let go of their vines. Violet watched as the cage dropped down and snapped off its rope; the men's screams echoed as they fell toward the ravine at the bottom of the canyon.

"Move!" Will yelled, and they started to hurry up the side of the canyon again. At least they wouldn't have to race the other cage now; they'd only have to race the Pelagustus sentry man that had just run off to get more Pelagustus people. _Perhaps that's not the best trade-off of all time,_ Violet thought wryly as she ignored her screaming muscles and continued to climb as fast as she could.

After several tense minutes of climbing, Violet and a relieved group of men pulled the cage up onto solid, horizontal ground. "Cut it loose, find a rock!" Will wasted no time in commanding, and everyone cast about for a rock and started hacking at the rope.

Before they could give any exclamation of happiness or excitement when the rope was successfully hacked off, they heard the battle cries of the Pelagustus drawing near. "Roll the cage!" Will shouted, and Violet wasted no time in complying, although she knew they were in for a rough ride.

_I. Won't. Puke,_ Violet thought as she yelled with the other as they rolled down a hill. Thankfully she had never been a screamer, or she would have been creating some problems for herself.

When they crashed to a stop, Violet was loathe to get up anytime soon; that was, _until_ she heard the Pelagustus yells again. "Lift the cage!" Will said.

"C'mon lads, lift it like a lady's skirt!" Gibbs squalled, and Violet lifted the cage, trying not to wince at his choice of words. They ran, holding the cage up and probably looking quite comical, Violet was sure.

Quite suddenly, the ground went away.

They went falling into water. Thankfully, the cage broke and they swam out of it as fast as they could.

"This way lads." Violet heard Gibbs say, and everyone swam, avoiding the arrows and spears being fired at them by the angry tribesmen. Not long after, they staggered out in the shallows of the water and saw the _Black Pearl_ again. Violet sighed in relief, running at it.

Once they reached the _Pearl_, they were pleasantly surprised to find the work of casting lines off half done by two men Violet had never seen before. "Make ready to sail, boys!" Gibbs bellowed pleasantly.

"What about Jack? I won't leave without him!" Violet heard Will tell Gibbs as she started to climb up a line.

"Oi!" Violet whipped her head around at the faraway exclamation and saw, to her utter disbelief, Jack running towards them down the beach. Seconds later, Violet nearly dropped off the line she was climbing as the while tribe rounded a corner, bent on catching Jack.

"Cast off those lines!" Gibbs cried out, his voice going slightly higher in his fear. This snapped Violet back into awareness, and she hurried up her line so she could cast it off.

It only took seconds for all the lines to be cast off, and only seconds after that Jack had jumped on a net that hung over the side of the ship. Violet watched as he turned back to the cannibals, who were looking forlorn at Jack's sudden departure.

"Alas, my children, this is the day you shall always remember as the day that you almost –" Jack began animatedly before a wave crashed into him, leaving him sopping wet. Violet wasn't sure whether it was the fact that what he would have said next was disturbing or that the wave had broken the moment that made Jack's next words rather half-hearted. "– Captain Jack Sparrow."

Violet shook her head. She doubted anyone that knew Jack actually needed to be reminded that that was who he was.

* * *

A/N: Thus ends chapter two. Plenty of DMC 'Hey I know that line!' parts, aye? Don't forget to tell me what you think in a review! Thanks! 

(Who else absolutely _loved_ AWE?)


	4. Chapter Three

Disclaimer: Don't own. Don't claim to own. Glad we cleared that up. :)

* * *

The island they were rapidly approaching was lush with thick forests. As the ship drifted to a stop at the mouth of a river, Violet wondered why they had come there. Gibbs seemed on edge, but he wouldn't tell anyone why. As Violet watched him, he continued to glance furtively at the river, looking anything but willing to accompany the boat party to wherever they were going. Violet wasn't sure she was very happy to be a part of that party anymore. She supposed, however, that it would be better than being a part of a cannibal's party, and thought no more on it.

"Come on, then, we haven't got all day!" Jack exclaimed impatiently, ushering the group into three boats. Violet climbed into her boat without complaint, resigned to the fact that she might not ever find out why Gibbs hated wherever they were going so much.

The travel downstream seemed leisurely ominous, as though something was trying to lull them into a false sense of security; the people that stared out at them, looking nearly deceased, didn't help that feeling much.

Bored, Violet's ears picked up on a snatch of the conversation Gibbs and Will were having in the boat behind her. "…The Kraken."

Violet snapped her head around. The Kraken. Not something Violet particularly wanted to think about. Nevertheless, she vaguely remembered that the Kraken had had something to do with her grandfather's death, or at least that's what her grandmother had always claimed. Repeatedly and in-depth.

Violet had never been one to really believe her grandmother's story, however, even though she had supposedly been present at the Kraken's feast. Her grandmother had always said that Violet had been there, standing with her mother and grandmother on the docks, when the Kraken had swallowed her grandfather's vessel. As Violet had been eight at the time of her grandfather's death, she figured she would remember something like that. But she had never argued against her grandmother's story; indeed, Violet wished she were still around to annoy her with it.

Sighing heavily, Violet realized they had approached a shack that, apparently, was their destination. It seemed to be in the very middle of the swamp, the canopy so thick that it was as dark as night; of course, for all Violet knew, it could be.

The shack itself seemed innocent enough, projecting as much friendly nature as a shack in the middle of a swamp could.

Basically, it was creepy.

However, Violet certainly didn't want to be the one left out, all alone, to watch the boats. Needless to say, she wasted no time in following the others in as they all left poor Cotton – parrotless Cotton, at that – alone to mind the boats. _Sorry, Cotton – although it's questionable to our sanity to think that a tongueless man who relies upon a bird to speak for him could alert us very well if someone were to try to take them. I s'pose Jack would have a right fine excuse for _that _if it was brought up. "He and the parrot share a mind, see? Why do ye think I let the bird come in with us?" That's what –_

_Bang!_

Violet jumped like a bug about to be squashed. So caught up in her musings – or slight ramble, to be more precise – was she that she hadn't been paying any attention whatsoever to the interaction between Jack and whomever lived in the shack. At least she was in the back of the group.

Violet surveyed the room, finding it cluttered with all sorts of odds and ends of a strange nature. They ranged from harmless things, such as beads, to creepy things like a jar full of human eyeballs.

A collective groan rippled through the crew, and when Violet realized this was because the creepy swamp lady – now the _evil_, creepy swamp lady, as far as Violet was concerned – had let Jack the monkey loose, she joined in. She hated that stupid pilfering monkey! What was the use of having a monkey you could shoot if all it did was steal everything all the time?

"The payment is fair," the swamp lady judged, and Will wasted no time. "We're looking for this, and what it goes to." he said, apparently having shown her the piece of cloth Jack had given him – the one he had gone into a Turkish prison for. A picture of a key.

The swamp lady looked at it once, then turned and surveyed Jack. "The compass you bartered from me – it cannot lead you to dis?" she demanded, and it was his turn to be the center of everyone's gaze; everyone that had looked around the shack as much as they cared to, anyway. Jack seemed almost uncomfortable as he answered, as though there was a hidden meaning to his answer, a meaning he didn't want anybody to know. "Maybe; why?"

The swamp lady looked speechless for just a moment, before catching on to the hidden meaning Jack's words had had. "Aye…." She drawled with a grin, "Jack Sparrow does not know what he wants."

_But there's just so many possibilities! Jack could want rum, women, rum, gold, rum….the list is just endless!_ Violet thought with a wry grin.

"Ar, do you know, but are loathe to claim it as your own?" the swamp lady continued in her heavy accent. There was a short, uncomfortable silence in the shack before she went on. "Your key go to a chest, and it is what lay inside the chest you seek, don't it?"

Violet perked up at this, having wondered the same thing – along with every other crewman. "What is inside?" Gibbs voiced, getting excited. "Gold? Jewels? Unclaimed properties of a valuable nature?" Pintel pressed. "Nothing…bad, I hope?" Ragetti finished nervously.

The swamp lady leaned forward. "You know of Davy Jones, yes?" she asked, and the air seemed to change; it gained an ominous, important feel to it. "A man of the sea: a great sailor…until he run afoul of that which vex all men."

Violet got the impression the swamp lady liked to tell this story as she watched her gestures and felt the way her telling of it drew them all in. "What vexes all men?" Will asked, and Violet suppressed a laugh at the obviousness of the answer – at least, obvious from her observations and experiences. "What indeed?" the lady answered with a coy smile.

"The sea." Gibbs answered matter-of-factly. "Sums." Pintel put in, slightly less confidently. "The dichotomy of good and evil." Ragetti said seriously enough that the former two turned and gave him strange looks. Jack rolled his eyes in annoyance. "A woman," he corrected.

"A woman," the swamp lady agreed. "He fell in love."

_That would be such a sweet story,_ Violet thought, _if Davy Jones wasn't such a creepy, evil guy. And, of course, if he were _real.

"No, no, no, no," Gibbs objected. "I heard it was the sea he fell in love with." With as many stories, folklores, and superstitions that Gibbs knew, Violet wasn't surprised he had heard otherwise. "Same story, different versions. And all are true," swamp lady said firmly, shaking a finger. "See, it was a woman –"

Here, the lady gestured such that Violet was given the impression that she was talking about herself. "– as changing and harsh and untamable as the sea." Her grin was self-satisfactory. "Him never stop loving her. But the pain it cause him was too much to live with…but not enough to cause him to die."

"What exactly did he put into the chest?" Will asked, sounding as though he were getting impatient with the swamp lady's long explanation.

"Him heart."

Violet blinked. Yes, indeed, everyone _had_ gone mad if they were thinking this chest was real – and that Davy Jones himself were real, and still alive after having put his heart inside a chest and locked it up. Davy Jones was a legend. _Had_ to be….

"…He couldn't literally put his heart in a chest!" Pintel was exclaiming when Violet tuned back in to the conversation. He turned to the swamp lady. "Could he?"

"It was not worth feeling what small, fleeting joy life brings," she answered. "And so…him carve out him heart, lock it away in a chest and hide the chest from the world. The key he keep with him at all times."

With those ominous words hanging in the air, Will got up from his seat at the table and turned to face Jack. "You knew this," he stated with the start of anger in his voice. Violet had to agree with him; Jack usually knew a lot more than he let on.

"I did not." Jack denied, and Violet knew a qualification was coming. That way, he wouldn't be lying. "I didn't know where the key was, but now we do. So all that's left is to climb aboard the Flying Dutchman, grab the key; you go back to Port Royal and save your bonnie lass, eh?"

Somehow, Violet doubted it would really be that easy.

"Let me see your hand." Demanded the lady suddenly, and Violet raised an eyebrow curiously, watching as Jack obeyed reluctantly.

It took a moment for the woman to unwrap Jack's hand, but when the cloth finally came off it garnered quite a reaction to the three crew members that were closest.

"The black spot!" Gibbs exclaimed, rubbing his hands on his vest, turning in a circle once, ending with a good spit on the floor. Pintel and Ragetti quickly followed his example.

"My eyesight's good as ever, just so you know," Jack commented somewhat grumpily. Violet smothered a snort of amusement. Of course Jack's eyesight was fine – well, as good as any other pirate's, anyway. Which, Violet supposed, didn't really say much; not when you took into consideration none of them had thought she honestly looked just a bit too feminine….

The woman exited into one of the back rooms, and soon the sound of rummaging came trickling out, along with occasional mutterings such as, "…where did I put dat…?"

Violet yawned; it really was rather boring in the shack when one wasn't a part of the actual proceedings – at least, once you got over the various things hanging from the ceiling.

Things got a bit more interesting when the woman came back carrying a large jar of what looked like…dirt?

"Davy Jones cannot make port. Cannot step on land but once every ten years," the lady began in explanation, "Land is where you are safe, Jack Sparrow, so you will carry land with you."

Slightly hesitantly, Jack took the jar from her. After a moment he said, "Dirt. This is a jar of dirt." This, coincidentally, was exactly what Violet was thinking as she stared at the woman with newly increased incredulity.

"Yes," the woman responded matter-of-factly, with a hint of 'isn't that rather obvious?' in her tone.

"Is the…jar of dirt going to help?" Jack asked, clearly still in disbelief that he had been given such a thing.

"If you don't want it, give it back." This was clearly said to get the reaction that followed: Jack immediately clutched the jar to him in a refusal, adding a childish 'no.' "Then it helps," the woman said in satisfaction, and Violet knew the dirt was more to give Jack peace of mind than actual protection. Violet rather liked this woman's clever trickery.

The rest of their visit consisted of the lady using crab claws in order to tell Will and Jack where they could find the _Flying Dutchman_, something that made Violet wonder anew why they had come here for information.

Unfortunately for Violet, her inattention to goings-on meant that once it was time to leave, she had to wait for everyone else to get through the door in their mad dash back to the boats before she could even attempt to leave. Once the shack had cleared out enough for her to try to leave, Violet turned toward the door but was stopped by someone grabbing her arm. Turning, she found herself just a bit too close to the swamp lady than she liked.

"Take care to watch your back when next you make port, young flower." In the silence left in the wake of the crew, the words echoed ominously.

_How the hell did she…?_

"How –?" Violet asked dubiously. A hint of a smile appeared on the woman's lips.

"One cannot fool Tia Dalma." With that, she released Violet and wandered back to her table, leaving Violet to hurry out to the boats, still in a state of shock, for Tia Dalma's words of warning were not light ones.

* * *

A/N: Yes, I know; it's been a long time. Sorry about that! Things should get more interesting - and original - once we hit Tortuga, so hang in there. :) Please remember to review! I love feedback!

Poketheveil


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